Huddersfield Town-Relegation And Beyond. A deep dive!

It would be fair to say Huddersfield Town have been abysmal this season, with endless poor performances leading to them being at the bottom of the table with only 3 wins and now relegation looking more inevitable with Jan Siewert now planning for life in the second tier of English football. Everyone at Town knows that next season will not be a walk in the park due to poor delivery and poor finishing and this does need to change to prevent the Terriers from doing a Sunderland or Blackpool and dropping down to League 1. What follows will be a comprehensive list of what Town need to do to avoid that fate and what caused this poor season in the first place.

Who to watch

Huddersfield have no shortage of quality as shown by Diakhaby, Duhaney and Stankovic breaking into the side and putting in performances that are pleasing when compared to the players they replaced. In the Championship these 3 players will be a delight to watch as all three are young and have a lot of potential if used correctly and can keep their heads up if they make mistakes and learn from them to become better players and they can become excellent squad players of potential Premier League quality if they realise their potential.

Karlan Grant does have the quality to shine in the Championship if he is given game time and Huddersfield can find the delivery they have been lacking this season, scoring 1 shabby goal in his first 4 games for town since signing from League One side Charlton on the 30th January for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £2,000,000 after having an electric first half of the season spearheading the Addicks attack.

Another one to watch is Aaron Mooy who is reportedly happy at the club and willing to see out his contract which will run out at the end of next season unless the club exercises an option in this contract to extend it which it reportedly has. We know he can perform at this level as evidenced in the promotion season when he was on loan from Manchester City following his purchase from A-League side Melbourne City FC.

This seasons transfers-It goes without saying that Huddersfield’s last two transfer windows have been disappointing for fans and players of the club with the lack of proven quality brought in, with youngsters with potential being brought in ahead of players who have already proven their quality at this level of football or equivalent experience. Ben Hamer coming in as a backup option for first-choice stopper Jonas Lossl after Robert Green’s free transfer move to Chelsea has been a poor piece of business conceding 11 in 5 games in all competitions including the 6-1 thrashing by Manchester City and the 0-3 loss to Chelsea. The arrival of Jason Puncheon on loan seems like a poorly planned panic signing due to no one wanting to play for a side who were all but relegated when the January window hit. On the transfers outside of things the continued development of Lewis O’Brien currently on loan at Bradford City has been great for getting him game time, albeit at a lower level than where we will be playing next season will gain him confidence of playing on a weekly basis with 29 appearances so far challenging for a first-team place in the next 2-4 seasons if his progress isn’t stalled in the next few campaigns by being left unused at Town and hopefully he continues to be loaned out so he doesn’t stagnate in the reserve team.

What needs to be done-Huddersfield’s lack of goals this season has been personified by the lack of delivery into the box and the absence of finishing skill when the ball is in the box. Huddersfield need some good men out wide who can get balls into the box on a weekly basis, the easiest way to remedy this would be to either use someone who Town already have such as Van La Parra when he returns from Middlesbrough although his lack of appearances will not fill the manager with confidence in his quality at doing so or Ramadan Sobhi who is currently turning out for Al Ahly, but with the same problems mentioned before being the lack of appearances.

If Huddersfield could agree on a fee for a player from a recently promoted league 1 team that would be ideal. Huddersfield’s first choice stopper Lossl and the current defence will be sufficient to provide a strong finish in the Championship if the aforementioned issues are solved and if Steve Mounié finds confidence and starts to find the back of the net consistently as we know he can. What do you think Huddersfield need to do next season?